Seriously Mrs. President, these students should march

Sometimes an opportunity is so close to your face you swat it away like a pesky gnat.

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poconorecord.com

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Posted Mar. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Mar. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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Sometimes an opportunity is so close to your face you swat it away like a pesky gnat.

Such is the case at East Stroudsburg University.

The school's commencement is on May 21, but ESU will not allow six cognitively challenged students completing a three-year program to walk with other graduates.

The Career and Independent Living and Learning Studies program helps those with challenges, like Down syndrome, become independent and productive.

Some in the campus community protested, calling the decision discriminatory. They circulated a petition and began a Twitter campaign to raise awareness of the issue.

Why exclude these students? The program's director said it was because the program isn't accredited, part of the school's curriculum or funded by the school.

So what?

If the program's aim is to help these students become independent and live productively within the general population, then why exclude them from a ceremony that does just that?

What harm is done to include these students, a whole six of them, whose achievements are no less remarkable than those of the matriculating students?

We think of discrimination as active, hostile and intentional. But discrimination can be passive and unintentional, too. Yet the results are the same.

ESU is an institution of learning with a history of training teachers, no less.

These learning studies students, by sharing the limelight with the other graduates and their families, would experience acceptance and gain self-esteem and a lifelong reminder of what they accomplished. The matriculating students, in turn, would be exposed to the diversity that's at the core of the school's mission.

Stroudsburg Area School District opened a coffee shop in its high school last year, selling beverages and pastries to students. The shop is staffed with special education students, including some with Down syndrome. It gives them a chance to take their skills from the classroom into real-world situations.

I covered it for the paper last year. As I walked behind the counter, I heard my name called. There stood this beautiful young man who I've known since he was a child. He was now a student in the program.

He buried his head in my chest and gave me a big hug, then quickly went back to his job setting up cups. But when I looked in his eyes, I saw a joy, pride and fulfillment I'd never seen in him before. I understood immediately what the program meant, and I quietly cried in that small space behind the counter.

Please, President Welsh, think of all the good that can come from including these graduates. Now is the time for your great institution to be what it says it is.